Sheep Breed Called Pigs with Wool

Sheep Breed Called Pigs with Wool AG WORLD Ag World 17-3-22 A heavy-muscled new breed of sheep from Holland is being hailed by sheep producers who've seen them as "pigs with wool" for their superior conformation and consistent carcass size and quality. So far only a handful of producers in the U.S. and Canada have been able to get the new Texel sheep due to stringent import and quarantine regulations on imported live-stock. Michiel Messing and his wife Grace, Dutch immigrants farming near Eckville, Alberta, have a flock of 75 purebred ewes and rams in quarantine. They won't be able to start selling breeding stock for two more years. The Messing's say one of the biggest problems facing the North American sheep market is inconsistent carcass quality. Packers complain that lambs come in all shapes and sizes with conformation that varies widely. Texels are strictly a meat breed that's heavily muscled and produces a real "ham". In fact, at a recent lamb carcass competition in Alberta, Texels took both first and second place prizes out of 66 entries flown in from across Canada, ac-cording to a report in COUNTRY GUIDE Magazine. Texels have a 140 to 150 percent lambing rate. It does take about 10 more days to reach market weight but the carcass yields 5 to 7 percent more on average than other breeds. And it's considered very lean, says Messing. There are two other Texel producers in Canada and a few in the U.S. but so far no one is selling any, Messing told FARM SHOW. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Michiel & Grace Messing, Western Texels, Box 329, Eckville, Alberta T0M 0X0 (ph 403-746-5483)

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